Unknown Love

Preview: A Naruto story about five friends who live in the Naruto world. Join the quest unlocking dark secrets that lie within the most innocent of people. Learn about each character as they take on challenges that question their friendship.

Part 1:

Unforgotten Past

Chapter 1: Introductions

Valerie Kunimura

I DO NOT OWN NARUTO! If I did, Naruto and Sakura would already be a couple! (NaruXSaku fan as you can see... :P) Some minor swearing and that stuff so go ahead and read the story!

In the nearby woods that surrounded Konoha, an eighteen year old girl with long, black hair in a pony tail, and brown eyes was leaning against a tree. She was straining her ears, listening to every sound made in the thick forest, trying to find The Target.

"Where are you?" she whined, biting her lip. Patience was low that day since she's been in the exact same spot, listening to leaves rustle and squirrels run up trees for three hours.

"He's just doing this to annoy me!" she huffed. "And it's working!" He knew where she was but if she moved, she'd probably lose and if there's one thing Kunimura Valerie did not like, was losing, especially losing to a...boy. You'd think at the age of eighteen the boy/girl rivalry would be depleted as early as thirteen where the opposite gender usually start seem attracting to each other but not in her case. She still consider guys rivals, but good friends, still not accepting the whole, boyfriend girlfriend thing or even grasping the point. Her legs were asleep and her neck was numb. Her shoulders felt like they were burning from staying in the same position for so long.

"Damn him!" she whispered under her breath. Finally, she sighed and stood up, walking away from the shelter of the tree. "Okay, I surrender...," she admitted unwillingly, holding both hands in the air.

An instant later, a boy that's also eighteen years of age appeared a couple of meters away from her with a smirk on his face. "Too much for you huh?" he asked. Valerie was silent, and Itachi took this as a sign of giving in and momentarily letting his guard down. That was all Valerie needed before she quickly disappeared and reappeared behind him. She quickly put a kunai against his neck.

"What the-??" he cried.

"I win...," she whispered into his ear. She retracted the kunai put against his skin and smiled.

"That wasn't fair," he said, crossing his arms.

"You didn't say we couldn't play dirty," she told him.

"Sore loser."

"Shut up!" Valerie screeched giving him a playful shove. He grabbed her hand, pulled it behind her back, and pinned her against a tree. "Ow! Itachi! Let go!" she cried.

"Not unless you say that Itachi's the greatest ninja in the world and I bow down to his power," Itachi told her with an evil grin on his face.

"NEVER!" Valerie screamed as she struggled to free herself but it was no use, Itachi was too strong. "Itachi! You're shoving my face into the tree!" she whined.

"I know," he answered.

"YOU'RE EVIL!" Valerie shouted.

"I know," Itachi said again, getting on her nerves. "The pain will stop if you say it!"

"No!"

"Say it!"

"No!"

"SAY IT!"

"NOOO!"

That's when Itachi grabbed her pony tail. "You wouldn't...," Valerie whispered.

"I would," Itachi told her as he slowly started pulling the pony tail off. Now if there was another thing that Valerie did not like, it was having her hair down. The last person to pull her pony tail off, which was poor eighteen year old Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto, ended up in the hospital because of that and the same fate awaited a certain Uchiha Itachi. She had known Naruto a long time as well, and she was lucky that she didn't get sent to prison or anything as she was one to injure even the Hokage. Now that is why everyone in the village avoids trying to pull off her pony tail if even the Hokage shivers at her presence.

As soon as he slid the pony tail off, Valerie sprang into action. She elbowed him in the guts. Itachi, who was completely unprepared for this reaction, doubled over, and she grabbed his arm, and pulled it behind his back, and shoved him on the ground, firmly sitting on his back to avoid any escape. She squeezed his wrists until his hands finally dropped the pony tail on the forest floor after a loud, cracking sound, which was most likely his bone.

"That will teach you to fear my presence," she said, getting off of him.

"Pretty good...," Itachi told her, wincing as he got up. Valerie, who usually isn't a violent person, (but a good person to fear if you ever crossed her...) saw this and quickly became worried.

"Oh my gosh! Itachi! Did that hurt?! I'm sorry!" she apologized, taking his wrists and examining it.

"Ow!" he cried again as she touched it. His wrist was beginning to swell up.

"Oh my gosh! I have to get you to the hospital!" she cried and quickly leading, no, dragging the poor boy to the hospital by his other wrist.

"I think I'd like to have only one broken wrist, thank you!" Itachi cried behind her.

"No comment," she said hastily.

As soon she got to Konoha hospital, she was met by the wonderful Medical Ninja, and best friend, Mikayla Sazuki. As soon as she caught sight of Valerie dragging the injured Itachi in, she immediately asked, "What did you do now?"

"Wha? What do you mean? Just because I come dragging in another person, doesn't mean that I-," Valerie started before Mikayla gave her one of those "No-really-what-did-you-do-this-time?" looks. "-and I kinda think I broke Itachi's...wrist," she finished.

Mikayla sighed. "Over what this time?" she asked.

"Pony tail...," Valerie said for the second time that week.

Mikayla slapped herself with the palm of her hand. "Not...Again...," she said through clenched teeth.

Valerie gave her a weak smile as Mikayla lead them to an examining room. Walking to the examining room, they passed the check-up room. Unsurprisingly, Naruto was having his wrist re-looked at to see that he had made a full recovery.

"Hey Naru-chan," Valerie said blankly as she walked by.

"It's Hokage-sama to you," he replied. Naruto gave a "Oh, you too?" look to Itachi who just nodded sheepishly as he passed.

"C'mon Itachi!" Valerie urged, tugging him forward, almost making him fall. "You don't have time to waste on perverted Hokages...," she whispered, still mad at Naruto for pulling her pony tail off yesterday. Naruto pouted, something unexpected from a Hokage.

"Hey! Don't you start comparing me to the Pervy Sage now!" he shouted after them. Silence.

As soon as Mikayla closed the door, she immediately told Itachi to sit down and hold out his wrist. Her hands glowed a light green as she went over the injury. "Nothing serious, fixable," she said plainly. Her hands stopped glowing the light green. "It's not broken, more like twisted, but not broken," she said reassuringly. "This might hurt a bit," she warned as she use one hand to hold his arm and the other to twist the wrist back in place. Valerie closed her eyes when she did this, and waited until Mikayla signaled the "all clear" which was the successful stop of a short sound of cracking bones. Opening her eyes, Mikayla was wrapping putting his hand in a cast. "At least a week," Mikayla advised as Itachi clenched and unclenched his fingers.

"Thanks Mikayla! Don't know what I'd do without you!" Valerie thanked, giving her a hug.

"You owe me!" she told her.

"I'll repay you back later!" she told her. With that, Valerie took Itachi's hand mindlessly and started walking out the door.

"Oh and do me a favor, stop hurting people. You're too innocent for people to believe you can actually hurt someone and it's hard filling those reports in cause no one believes me!" Mikayla shouted as they ran out the door.

"No comment!" Valerie shouted waving to her before she was out the door. Mikayla sighed as she went back to work.

Konner Gyomabiki. Shoulder length blond/brown hair. Eighteen years old. Now on this particular day, Konner was EXTREMELY bored, and her boyfriend, Gaara of the Desert, currently known as the only nineteen year old to become Kazakage of Sunahagkure, was busy doing ...Kazakage things. She decided that wondering what her other roommates are doing, is the way to go. "Let's see..." she whispered to herself. "Mikayla is probably at the hospital, being the Medical Ninja that she is...Keyanie must be sleeping in since that mission last night...and Hannahh must be shopping because Mikayla was yakking about having nothing in the fridge...Valerie must be off somewhere with Itachi, as usual..." She sighed. Valerie likes Itachi, Itachi likes Valerie, but neither of them can bring themselves forward and tell each other how they feel. Valerie's too shy, and Itachi wants to confirm that Valerie feels the same way...What a fix they're in...Konner grabbed a kunai out of her kunai holder tied on her right leg. She started twirling it with her finger. After awhile, she thought that she'd go check up on Keyanie. She put the kunai back into the kunai holder and started walking home.

Home. She closed her eyes, and brought herself into a flashback.

Five little kids were running around the park. Five eight year old kids were running around the park. Valerie with her long black hair, in a pony tail as usual, was blowing bubbles. Mikayla was chasing after Konner, who was running for her life holding Mikayla's Teddy Bear. Keyanie was sneaking behind Valerie, attempting to take off hair tier. Hannah was rolling on the ground laughing at Konner who was tackled to the ground by Mikayla. Valerie ran off to check on them before Keyanie grabbed her pony tail and she fell flat on her face, a mouth full of grass. That earned her a gut wrenching laugh from everyone, except for Valerie who looked like she was about to pummel her to the ground, but of course everyone knew she wouldn't do that...To them at least...

At last, the sun was setting, and all five friends where lying on the grass.

"Hey, let's promise something...," Keyanie whispered as she was getting up. Everyone looked at her, getting up themselves. "Let's promise to be best friends for life!" she cried.

"I'm in!" Valerie added.

"Me too!" chirped in Hannahh.

"We're in!" Mikayla and Konner told them.

"Alright!" Keyanie shouted. She held put her pinkey finger. "Best Friends For Life!" she cried. Everyone found a pinkey to hold onto. "Best Friends For Life!" they shouted and everything was drowned out by laughs and smiles.

'That's right, that was how we became friends, and stayed friends for all of these years...' Konner thought. Suddenly, she ran into a door. "OW!" she cried, grabbing her nose, which was turning a slight shade of red. "What the frick?" She found herself outside of their house. 'Wait, how did I walk home without realizing it?' she wondered as she opened the door.

Home was a big house located near the most beautiful field of Sakura Trees you can imagine. Running through the Sakura Trees was a river, that lead into their back yard where there was a tiled pool. The bottom of the pool and the perimeter was surrounded by square marbled tiles. The river lead into the pool by a waterfall. Next to the waterfall was a grassy area where they had beautiful eating area.

The house consisted of six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and upstairs patio. One bathroom upstairs, two down. The kitchen and living room was downstairs. Two bedrooms downstairs and four upstairs with the last bathroom and upstairs patio. They also had a front door patio that wrapped around the house. They just finished moving in yesterday.

Konner was bored, and a bored Konner means...Well...Let's just say that she's something to watch out for when she's looking for something to do...On this particular day, she decided to torture those who were sleeping in. All of the doors were open, stating that everyone was out, except for one. It was on the first floor and it had "Keyanie's Room" hand painted on the door in purple letters. Konner's facial feature exploded into an evil grin as she walked up to the door.

"Keyanie? Awake yet?" she asked, knocking on the door. Silence, except for some soft snoring. She sighed and said, "Keyanie, if you don't wake up in ten seconds I will have to force you awake!" Still silence. "Ten...nine...eight...seven," she started counting. Once she reached zero, she went to the sink and filled a cup with cold water. After that, she opened Keyanie's room and saw her sleeping in her bed which was next to the door. She quickly threw the water at her and there was a loud scream.

"COOOOLLLDDDD!" Keyanie screamed, wiping the water away from her eyes.

"It's ten in the morning," Konner told her. "You came back from the mission at ten at night. You slept for TWELVE HOURS! How much sleep does a person need?"

"A-a-a-a-a-a-a l-l-o-t-t-t-t," Keyanie stammered. Konner went across the room and opened the curtains. Keyanie was nearly blinded with the light.

"GO OUTSIDE! IT'S A NICE DAY!" Konner ordered and walked out into the living room. "Wow, I'm starting to act more like Valerie everyday," she whispered to herself.

Hannahh Mizuki is an eighteen year old, average height, medium brown hair woman who loved to laugh and have fun, but at this moment, she was walking down the streets grabbing anything edible within sight. She had gotten a BIG scolding from Mikayla for having absolutely nothing in the fridge on her shopping week. Mikayla had no mercy...Well, maybe the slightest mercy to her friends, but if you cross the line...She didn't even want to think about it. She shivered at the flashback of this morning.

She was just brushing her teeth in the upstairs bathroom when a loud voice echoed throughout the house. "HANNAHH!" It screamed. She had to use her hands to cover her ears, nearly choking on her toothbrush at the sudden scream. She spat the brush out and rinsed it and her mouth with cold, clear water. 'Shit! This can't be good!' she thought as she turned the water off and ran down the stairs. She passed Valerie's empty room, then Konner's room where Konner was busy cleaning up spilled pain on the floor. 'Thank goodness we have hard wood floor!' Konner thought as she wiped up the mess with a rag. She past her room which was by the stairs.

Running down the stairs and turning a corner, she bumped into Valerie who was whacking at her ear with her hand.

"What are you doing?" Hannahh asked.

"What did you do?" Valerie asked, rubbing her ear. "I was in the living room (which was next to the kitchen) reading a book when Mikayla screamed your name and now, I think I'm going deaf."

"Sorry Valerie," Hannahh replied. "I have no idea what I did!"

"You better hurry on in there before she yells your name again," Valerie advised. "And just in case she does that, I'm going in my room and locking the door." She brushed past Hannahh to the stairs. She quickly ran past Mikayla's room and Keyanie's room which was right next to Mikayla's. Keyanie's door was closed so she must be sleeping in...again.

When she got to the kitchen, she saw Mikayla waiting for her, leaning against the counter. She was glaring at her, sending chills up her spine.

"H-Hi, Mikayla. What did you want?" she asked nervously.

"Look at this," Mikayla whispered as she opened the fridge. It was completely empty.

"What is there to look at?" Hannahh asked, not grasping the point.

Slamming the refrigerator door, Mikayla faced her and said, "That's exactly the point! There's nothing in it! No food! Nothing! The cupboards are empty too!" She thrust opened the empty cupboards. "This is YOUR shopping week and we have absolutely nothing to eat because you didn't go shopping AT ALL!" she screamed. Hannahh cringed and backed up to the wall.

"I-I'm sorry! I forgot-," was all she got out before Mikayla screamed.

"THAT'S EXACTLY IT! You FORGOT! You always forget! We're near to starving here Hannahh! Valerie, Konner, and even Keyanie manage to remember it somehow!" Hannahh knew that she was in big trouble and there's no getting out of it.

"I'm sorry! I learned my lesson!" Hannahh apologized.

"Sorry isn't good enough!" Mikayla cried. She shoved some money into her hands. "Go out and don't come back without food! If I come home and find the fridge empty, I swear, I will skin you alive!" That was all she needed to hear before she ran out the door.

Suddenly, two arms wrapped around her, brining her out of her flashback. Blond hair draped over her shoulder. She instantly knew who it was.

"Deidara! Let go! This is embarrassing!" she hissed, her cheeks turning bright red.

"Fine," he whispered, pouting. After he let go of her, she found out that was chewing bubblegum and was wearing a back, short sleeved short, white shorts, and black, fingerless gloves. His blue eyes shimmered in the sunlight.

"You're no fun!" he told her and she gave him a playful shove in the ribs. "So, what are you doing here?" he asked curiously.

"Shopping cause Mikayla was having a fit!" she told him and he laughed.

"Need help with those?" he asked. She nodded and gave him two bags of groceries. They started walking home.

"So what have you been doing?" he asked.

"Nothing much," she told him. "What have you been doing?"

"Oh I've been doing lots of things! Being bored...Eating, sleeping...Going on missions...And blowing stuff up with paper bombs. Otherwise, it's just being bored and sculpting things out of clay," he told her.

"Oh, you life is so much better than mine," she said sarcastically.

"Shut up!" he cried. By then, they were at the house. As soon as they walked in and Deidara placed the bags on the counter, Valerie showed up.

"Deidara!" she cried, jumping on his back. She's shy at first but once you've gotten to know her, she's very friendly and talkative. Hannahh smiled. Those two were like brother and sister, almost like she was with Naruto, or Itachi. . Actually, Deidara might as well have been part of their Best Friends For Life Family. He visits a lot and everyone likes him. She doesn't mind sharing. Deidara dropped Valerie on the couch and with that, Konner came down. "Deidara!" she said, giving him a hug.

"What's this?" he asked, pointing to the small, white, rectangle object that she was holding onto.

"Oh! This is my new painting!" Konner told him and showed everyone the new picture.

It was a beautiful picture of Valerie, Keyanie, Mikayla, Hannahh, and herself back when they were eight. Valerie was blowing bubbles, Mikayla was chasing Konner who was holding a teddy bear. Hannahh was on the ground laughing, and Keyanie looked like she was sneaking behind Valerie, trying to take off her pony tail. 'Wait a minute...' she thought.

"This is a painting of that day, when we swore to be Best Friends For Life!" Hannahh cried with recognition. Konner smiled.

"I knew you would remember! I hope everyone does!" Konner cried.

"Of course! How can we forget?" Hannahh asked and Konner shrugged.

"Good point!" she said.

"So how's Gaara?" Deidara suddenly asked.

Sitting down on the couch next to Valerie, Konner said, "He's kinda busy doing Kazakage things so I haven't gotten to see him yet." Deidara nodded.

"Being Kazakage is an important job," he told her. Hannahh frowned. Even though being Kazakage is an important job, she expected Gaara to at least call every now and then!

"Konner, how long has it been since Gaara last visited or called you?" Hannahh asked.

"Uh...A week?" Konner told her.

"That's a week too long!" Hannahh said. "Konner, are you doing anything Wednesday?" Konner shook her head no. "Great! On Wednesday, you, me, Valerie, Mikayla, and Keyanie are going to travel to Sunahagkure!"

"What?" Konner shouted, getting up. "We shouldn't do that!"

"Why not?" Valerie asked, getting up as well.

"Because Gaara's busy and-"

"He shouldn't be so busy he can't see his girlfriend can he?" Valerie asked.

"He's the Kazakage!" Konner cried.

"No Kazakage ignores their girlfriend and they shouldn't!" Hannahh told her. Konner was out of ideas. She really didn't want to visit Gaara! Gaara's busy being Kazakage and what happens if she's just butting in and distracting him from his work? But she had nothing else left to say. Finally, she gave in.

"Fine...," she whispered reluctantly. There was a small cheer.

"Hey, I can't let five girls travel to Suna by themselves!" Deidara shouted. "I'm coming too! Three days of traveling by yourselves? Not happening!"

Hannahh, Konner, and Valerie smiled.

"Okay well, I'm going to tell Mikayla!" Valerie told them and before they knew it, she went out the door and turned right.

"Mikayla's still at the hospital! I got the groceries!" Hannahh shouted after her. Valerie stopped, and ran back. They saw her passing the door going left.

"I knew that!" she shouted before she was out of sight.

Everyone sighed.

"Well, I'll go tell Keyanie...," Konner told them walking up the stairs.

"I think I saw Keyanie walking to the village though...," Hannahh told her. Konner instantly walked down the stairs again.

"You could have told me sooner!" she said hastily before grabbing her shoes and running out the door.

That left Deidara and her. Deidara enveloped her in a hug. "I have to go check up on Sasori," he told her.

"Your little orphaned friend?" she asked and he nodded.

"You never know what that little brat will do!" She just smiled and let him go.

"Visit again!" she cried as he ran out the door and out of sigh She sighed and plopped herself on the couch...

"Wait...I FORGOT TO PUT THE GROCERIES AWAY!" she shouted and quickly glanced at the clock across the room. "It's almost four o'clock! Mikayla's going to be home soon!" Not wanting to be skinned alive, she rushed into the kitchen and started putting the groceries away.

'It's almost four o'clock, I should be going home soon,' the eighteen year old, blond thought. She was just cleaning up her office when she caught a whip of black hair rush past her. 'Hm...Who has long black hair like that?' she thought before the whip of black hair ran past her again, and this time, she stuck her hand out and grabbed the end of it. "OW!" Valerie cried. Itching her head, when she saw who pulled her hair, she cried, "Mikayla! I found you!"

"What do you need?" Mikayla asked. Valerie told the whole Konner, Gaara situation to her and Mikayla agreed to help.

"Great! We're leaving on Wednesday which is tomorrow!" she said excitedly.

"So Deidara's coming too?" Mikayla asked and Valerie nodded. "So is Itachi coming?"

Valerie shrugged. "I haven't asked yet."

"Of course he will," Mikayla said under her breath. Itachi would never let Valerie go somewhere so far without him.

"Excuse me? I didn't catch that," Valerie told her.

"Oh, I just said you should ask him soon," Mikayla lied. Valerie nodded, understanding, not knowing that Mikayla was lying.

"Knock, knock!" a voice sounded. Behind them, seventeen years old Uchiha Sasuke was waiting there with a smile on his face. "I'm coming too," he said plainly.

"Come again?" Mikayla asked.

"I'm. Coming. Too," he said slowly enough for her to catch each word.

"Were you eavesdropping again?" Mikayla asked, crossing her arms.

"It's not eavesdropping. I was just coming to see you and you guys just happened to be talking!" he told her giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Being this Itachi's little brother, he got a big hug and a kiss on the forehead from Valerie.

"Uh, huh...," Mikayla said, not believing a single word. Sasuke wasn't actually a year younger than her. Just a month younger in fact, but Mikayla rubs it in on every opportunity that arrives, but this day was just not one of those days...

Turning to Valerie, Sasuke said, "So, Nee-chan (Valerie visits them so much, he already considers her a sister) how's it going with my older bro Itachi?" Valerie looked confused.

"How is what going?" she asked innocently.

"You know, the-," Sasuke said before Mikayla put her hand over his mouth.

"Uh, he means that little match this morning!" Mikayla lied, again before hissing, "She doesn't know!" to Sasuke who looked absolutely confused. With that, he nodded, understanding and she took her hand off his mouth.

"Oh that? I CRUSHED HIM!," she told him. "But he really knows how to conceal himself! Couldn't find him for THREE HOURS!"

Sasuke nodded, recalling a memory of playing hide-n-seek with Itachi when they were little, resulting in Sasuke's absolute loss.

With that, they started walking outside. It was four o'clock and the sun was still shining and it was getting really hot.

"God it's HOT!" Mikayla whined.

"Hey!" Valerie shouted, her head filled with one of her ideas. "Why don't we go swimming?!"

"Now that's a good idea!" Sasuke chirped and Mikayla nodded, agreeing.

"Let's go invite everyone!" Valerie cried.

How is THAT for an intro? XD! Well, I hope you get to like the story...Ah, who am I kidding? Who could possibly be reading this story right now?! But if someone does perhaps read this story, please leave a comment! (Or complaint, I want to know how to improve my writing...But, just to say, if the complaint is what I consider totally unreasonable in any way, you WILL regret it and everyone will have to suffer! I hate doing this, one person does something wrong while the rest are totally innocent but they all get blamed, kind of thing so I might have some mercy...Might...:) Please read the other chapters!